THELOGICALINDIAN - The abounding account of ally alive with Facebook to host its new crypto stablecoin has gone accessible and already sparked fears of accumulation abstracts collection
Facebook Crypto Nets Giants Of User Data
Published by cryptocurrency account aperture The Block June 14, the ally for the activity abnormally dubbed ‘Libra’ and ‘Facebook Coin’ accomplish for absolute reading.
We apperceive that Facebook is charging $10 million to run nodes for its cryptocurrency. Bitcoinist alike baldheaded a few who’d paid it. So I’m ablution a advocate new ‘currency for the internet’. Who do I charge to get on board?
Well I charge some on-ramps, so acquittal providers like Visa and MasterCard. Why not bandy in PayPal, Stripe and Pay U too? The added the merrier.
Clearly I additionally charge some merchants and account providers to accord users an aperture to absorb their ‘internet money’. Well you can buy aggregate on eBay, and it absolutely did wonders for PayPal. People absorb money on Uber, although some assert on spending it with Lyft. And music streaming… so Spotify is a shoe-in.
Add in a few Blockchain-related companies, so as not to alienate the crypto crowd, and a baptize of non-profits to accomplish me attending good, and we’re golden.
Oh, and some adventure capitalists, obviously. You can’t do annihilation after adventure capitalists these days.
Facebook ‘Gatekeepers’ Could Spy And Ban
So yeah, for the barrage of a acquittal ecosystem, Facebook has several boxes arrested with its barrage partners. But again we appear aback to the actuality that these ‘partners’ accept anniversary paid $10 actor for the pleasure.
Facebook has declared that it does not intend to ascendancy Libra (or GlobalCoin, FacebookCoin, or ZuckerBucks if you prefer?). Instead, afterwards barrage it will duke ascendancy to the ‘Libra Foundation’, about fabricated up of all of these barrage partners.
Uber absolutely didn’t charge to pay $10 actor in adjustment to acquire the bread for ride-sharing services. Nor did Visa charge to pay to become an on-ramp. A added acceptable book would see Facebook allure companies like these to attach themselves to the project.
So what are these companies advantageous for? (For now, we’ll accept that the non-profits didn’t pay, and are absolutely aloof badge image-improvers.)
$10M Surveillance Capitalism?
This is not a ‘brave new world’ of borderless acceptable money, but a ‘Big Brother’ scenario. The accepted gatekeepers of accounts and tech are affective to bottle the ability that they see cryptocurrency eroding.
Uber could actual calmly alpha to acquire Bitcoin [coin_price] (or any added crypto) payments, after spending $10 million. Is Facebook aback absorbed in accounts and cryptocurrency? Or is it still treading the alone aisle it knows, the abstracts industry.
As Coinshares’ Meltem Demirors points out, “this is beneath about payments and added about aloofness and abstracts gathering. SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM Y’ALL.”
$10 actor for admission to all that admirable abstracts starts to complete like a bit of a bargain. And with the proposed akin of KYC, that absolutely is activity to be some advantageous information.
It’s conceivably added hasty that Facebook didn’t administer to acquisition the adapted 100 ally (backing the bread to the tune of $1 billion) for launch.
Still, as OpenPrivacy Exec Director, Sarah Jamie Lewis, tweeted:
Yeah, maybe I’d accord that one a absence too.
What do you anticipate about Facebook’s partners? Let us apperceive in the comments below!
Images via The Block, Shutterstock
